R. Kelly Trial Day 3 [AM]: More Witnesses ID Singer & Alleged Victim
May 23,2008 00:00
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Without testimony from the alleged victim in the R. Kelly trial, prosecutors called two more people to the stand this morning to identify her in the sex tape.According to The Chicago Tribune, Aubrey Hampton, a former friend and classmate of the alleged victim, and her mother, Mary Kay Jerit, both identified the girl and Kelly as the participants in the tape.
When asked how she recognized the girl on the tape Hampton said, "Her face, some of her mannerisms and some parts her voice," as well as "The way she licked her bottom lip." Hampton told jurors she could tell it was Kelly because she had met him a few times through her friend.
As previously reported,the alleged victim's childhood friend, Simha Jamison, also identified the girl on the tape and Kelly yesterday.
According to Jamison's testimony, she and the alleged victim - who were best friends for about 10 years - would hang out with at the singer's recording studio. Jamison said that if it was a weeknight, the pair would leave the studio together but on some weekends the girl would stay behind without her.
During cross examination Jamison testified the girl never spoke of a sexual relationship with Kelly. The singer's attorney, Sam Adam, Jr. said this is because one did not exist and "because it's not her on the tape," at which point, Jamison contended, "Are you asking or telling me?"
Adam also showed a photo of a shirtless Kelly and asked Jamison how she could identify his body as the one on the video. "His head was attached to it," Jamison said, a response that drew laughter from some jurors.
Adam went on to suggest that the tape shows a computer-generated image of Kelly. "Something could have been done to put a different head on that body," he argued.
Like Jamison, another friend, an aunt and an uncle of the female sex tape participant also identified their niece as the alleged victim yesterday afternoon.
The aunt, Delores Gibbon, a Chicago police officer admitted to viewing the tape with relatives and discussing it weeks before someone mailed it to the Chicago Sun-Times, who ultimately turned it over to authorities. When asked why she didn't alert police, Gibbon claimed she was at odds--concerned for her job and the alleged victim and her family.
Adam dismissed her response, charging that Gibbon didn't go to authorities because someone in her family wanted to "get back at Mr. Kelly" after a soured business dispute and planned to extort the singer in a civil suit. Gibbon said she didn't know of any extortion plot.
The multi-Grammy award winning R&B singer faces 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography and if convicted could face up to 15 years in prison.
Stay tuned To as the story develops